ASIA’S MOST STYLISH

From a doc­tor and en­tre­pre­neur to a politi­cian and busi­ness mogul, the fash­ion-for­ward femmes awarded Most Stylish Woman by Asia Tatler's eight ti­tles around the re­gion are the most im­pres­sive multi-hy­phen­ates of their coun­tries and re­gions. While in Ma­cau for a glam­orous photo shoot at the newly opened Mor­pheus ho­tel, a Zaha Ha­did mas­ter­piece, they sat down with Rosana Lai and Melissa Twigg to dis­cuss what makes a woman stylish

Ev­ery year, Asia Tatler in­vites the re­cip­i­ents of its Most Stylish Woman award—one from each of its eight re­gions—to take part in a glam­orous photo shoot at an iconic lo­ca­tion. This time, our eight stan­dard-bear­ers were whisked off to Ma­cau to dis­cover its lat­est land­mark, Mor­pheus, a dra­matic one-of-a-kind re­sort de­signed by Zaha Ha­did at the City of Dreams com­plex. Named after the shape-shift­ing Greek god of dreams, it is a fit­ting legacy for the late Iraqi-bri­tish ar­chi­tect, known for her fu­tur­is­tic, free-flow­ing de­signs, and the per­fect venue to show­case the glam­our of our style mavens. The prop­erty was abuzz with ex­cite­ment as the eight awardees ar­rived with an en­tourage of so­cial me­dia pho­tog­ra­phers, hair and make-up artists, and per­sonal stylists. The dress­ing room was a trea­sure trove of the sea­son’s lat­est fash­ion and jew­ellery, with some en­vi­able ball­go­wns and other dresses brought by the women them­selves. Mor­pheus, with its as­tound­ing 35m-high atrium and un­con­ven­tional geo­met­ric con­fig­u­ra­tion, of­fered plenty of cre­ative spa­ces for the three-day shoot, which kicked off with an epic group shot at the prop­erty’s ex­hi­bi­tion space, Art on 23, where a tow­er­ing Kaws sculp­ture stands. Billed as the world’s first ex­am­ple of free-form high-rise ar­chi­tec­ture, the oth­er­worldly Mor­pheus fea­tures a dra­matic glass and steel fa­cade, a sculp­tural de­sign in­spired by the an­cient Chi­nese artistry of jade carv­ing. The ge­nius of Mor­pheus’ 40-storey struc­ture be­comes ap­par­ent when you step in­side to dis­cover a clever, cav­ernous kalei­do­scope of spa­ces that im­merse guests in the ho­tel’s unique aes­thetic. Within the open-plan lay­out, 12 glass-sided panoramic lifts em­pha­sise the height of the white-mar­ble lobby and pro­vide spec­tac­u­lar views of both the dy­namic in­te­rior and the Ma­cau cityscape. Be­tween the free-form voids that tra­verse the atrium, soar­ing bridges cre­ate spa­ces for the ho­tel’s el­e­gant shops, celebrity-chef res­tau­rants, bars and guest lounges. Shoot days were fol­lowed by drinks and sump­tu­ous din­ners, the first of which was at Alain Ducasse at Mor­pheus, a fine­din­ing restau­rant that pays homage to the great tra­di­tions of French gas­tron­omy and the leg­endary chef Alain Ducasse, who has col­lab­o­rated with Mor­pheus on two side-by-side din­ing des­ti­na­tions plus a glam­orous bar where mixol­o­gists whip up orig­i­nal con­coc­tions. The wel­come din­ner high­lighted French dishes that have made the chef fa­mous around the world. In be­tween shoots at the ho­tel’s iconic spa­ces, our glama­zons ex­pe­ri­enced five-star pam­per­ing at the Mor­pheus spa and treated their taste buds to fur­ther gas­tro­nomic ex­pe­ri­ences via the more ca­sual French bistro Voy­ages by Alain Ducasse, and sal­ads and quick gourmet bites at the Pierre Hermé Lounge. Our Most Stylish Women also en­joyed learn­ing to play friendly ta­ble games, at­tended a per­for­mance and back­stage tour of The House of Danc­ing Wa­ter, and in­dulged in some re­tail ther­apy at the lux­ury ho­tel’s shop­ping emporium, Mor­pheus Bou­tique, which fea­tures a care­fully cu­rated se­lec­tion of mer­chan­dise from brands such as Thom Browne, Re­possi and Proenza Schouler—the first two are avail­able in Ma­cau for the first time.

From left: Dian Lee wears dress by Afiq M and jew­ellery by Cartier; Sirisopa Chu­lase­wok wears her own Asava dress and jew­ellery by Cartier; Airyn Tanu wears her own Diana Putri jump­suit, jew­ellery by Pas­sion Jew­elry and heels by Giuseppe Zan­otti; Lucy Tor­res-gomez wears her own Cary San­ti­ago gown and jew­ellery by Chopard and Van Cleef &amp; Arpels; Ge­or­gia Lee wears dress by Fendi and her own gloves and ear­rings; Ming Ho-tang wears her own Os­car de la Renta gown and jew­ellery by Chopard; Fanny Tsai wears dress by Proenza Schouler and jew­ellery by Van Cleef &amp; Arpels; Natasha Lau wears top and skirt by Dior and jew­ellery by Cindy Chao The Art Jewel

FORM AND FUNC­TION Clock­wise from below: The cav­ernous Mor­pheus atrium; the en­trance to Alain Ducasse at Mor­pheus; and Mor­pheus Bou­tique, the ho­tel's shop­ping emporium. Op­po­site: Zaha Ha­did's fu­tur­is­tic ex­te­rior of the re­sort